PapercutsFading Parade

By the time San Francisco, CA's Jason Robert Quever released his sophomore LP in 2007 as Papercuts, he was crafting warm, jangling, slightly C&W pop that drew comparisons to the Byrds. Four years and two albums later, Quever has parlayed that sound into a hybrid of dream pop that would safely put his band into a category alongside contemporaries like Beach House and Grizzly Bear. That's not to say that Papercuts have abandoned all individuality on Fading Parade, as co-producer Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart) has honed Quever's lost-at-sea delivery and reverb-washed instrumentation into ten highly tapered tracks that take three or four listens before the subtle ingredients found within, including the muffled dynamics of "Do You Really Wanna Know," the Smiths-style guitar jaunt of "The Messenger" or the perfectly paced parlour piano swing of "Winter Daze," can be fully digested. Fading Parade remains Papercuts' most varied sounding album. Anyone telling you different just hasn't listened hard enough.
(Sub Pop)